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Enable COMAND Head Unit to use mobile phone data connection in the US

5384 Views 3 Replies 3 Participants Last post by  bill83238, 
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I have spent a good amount of time goggling various forums including this one to see if the COMAND NTG4.7 system will allow me to use my phone's data connection to access the Internet. I thought it should via Bluetooth tethering, but couldn't get it to work. I contacted Mercedes Benz support and a product representative called me said that this feature is not supported in the US, only data connection thru the for fee mbrace service is supported in the US. I looked in the engineering mode screens and see both Bluetooth DUN settings that are blank and BT PAN setting set to OFF. I asked the MB support person if while not officially supported in the US, if those settings could be changed to make it work. Whether or not this is possible, he advised me against playing with any of the settings.

So, my question is, has anyone in the US gotten this to work on the COMAND system in the 2014 SLK by changing these settings?
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I guess that nobody knows the secret to this. I thought for sure somebody would have cracked all the secret settings in the head unit :)
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A big concern with doing this would be the attack vector it presents to all CANBUS systems.

See:
< http://www.slkworld.com/off-topic/262114-hackers-could-control-your-car.html > and
< Fiat Chrysler Recalls 1.4M Vehicles After Jeep Hack - Mercedes Benz SLK Forum >
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AMG-UFO said:
A big concern with doing this would be the attack vector it presents to all CANBUS systems.

See:
< http://www.slkworld.com/off-topic/262114-hackers-could-control-your-car.html > and
< Fiat Chrysler Recalls 1.4M Vehicles After Jeep Hack - Mercedes Benz SLK Forum >
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I think this is an issue regardless if you leverage your own personal Internet connection via bluetooth or the in-car Verizon Wireless 3G radio built into all of the cars. (I don't know at what point Verizon deactivates the phone/modem, if ever, assuming MBrace is not active.)

Assuming you have MBrace or if you don't have a subscription but the i-button can actually make a connection, there is some level of risk. The car has what is equivalent to an integrated active Verizon cell phone that can receive inbound voice calls and data connections. Those are attack vectors too although I'm not making a judgement on the degree of risk.

I don't recall if those stories related to attack via the built-in wifi radio or in-car bluetooth radio. The bluetooth radio might be active for reasons other than data tethering (voice, audio streaming) so it's a potential vector. Clearly it would not be good for your car to tether to a nearby hacker's car to get its Internet connection. But, that's just one potential issue among others.

I would wager the reason we can't leverage our own Internet connection via bluetooth is more about revenue protection than security.
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